Written Assignment IV: Lessons from the Classroom
CELTA
This course has been a challenge for me, and therefore has also been an absolute pleasure. Throughout my academic career I have seldom felt challenged, though I always manage to obtain a high grade. I’ve become accustomed to skipping homework and generally procrastinating because my intellectual abilities have outweighed my behavior. I’ve sensed for a long time that I wasn’t really learning much in the classroom – that I was missing a deeper understanding – but for some reason whatever I did was declared good enough by my teachers and so I have carried on this way until now.
In this course, I couldn’t rely on my writing abilities. I couldn’t rely on my memory to sponge up the material and then wring it out during a final exam. I have my own theories about intelligence. One part of it is that everyone has their own sense of intelligence. There are no stupid people, only uneducated people. Further, those who excel in the classroom are able to learn in more various ways than the average person. They have visual, auditory, and tactile awareness of the material no matter how it’s presented. These learning styles do not necessarily translate into teaching styles, however. This course has taught me the difference between practice and theory.
My Own Teaching
For example, I have, unfortunately, failed two lessons. Before these two lessons, during my time with the upper-intermediate group in the first half of the semester, I was on my way to excelling in the course. So what happened? The second half of the course focused on deeper understanding, not mere classroom management and confidence. There is a point in cognitive development when our brains become aware of others. One could say that I had not reached that point intellectually. I’ve grown so accustomed to an atmosphere of input/output that when I asked “checking understanding” questions of my students, I was did so in a way that put them at the same disadvantage as I have found myself in today. A reminder to check for understanding has consistently appeared in all my feedbacks. I was only checking for nodding of heads, or for them to produce a phrase – not if they actually understood the meaning of what they were saying. Not to see if they could replicate it to communicate with their classmates. Not the “how” or “why” but only “if” things worked. I realize now that while systematic, asking a leading series of Yes or No questions about the material is the most effective way to know if the students really understand.
On a positive note, I feel I have a strong, natural manner with the students. This sentiment has been regularly expressed by my classmates and Professors in feedback. Nevertheless, I retain my position that this is teaching on the shallowest level. Then again, perhaps my real weakness is not primarily my comprehension, but more so my self-doubt. Knowing that – as I have for a long time – doesn’t change much on its own, but I am trying.
Observations
Nevertheless, through observing my Professors, the Brno ELC teachers, and my classmates, I have seen a wide range of people all pursuing the same goal successfully. I have learned from the Brno ELC teachers that the most effective teachers utilize technology and provide an experience rather than a lesson. While every portion of the lesson is planned, most of that planning is anticipatory and open to take different paths depending on the input of the students. The students don’t realize it, but they’re almost teaching themselves. In one class we watched in particular, every fifth word was immediately searched for on Google and authentic images helped fill the gap between question and explanation.
Future Plans
Looking to the future, I know I want to be a teacher. I want to be a writer too, but teaching is immediately rewarding and fulfilling in a different way. I feel comfortable in the classroom and from my feedback I understand that I have some natural abilities in that area, but before I can be an effective teacher there are still things I need to wrap my head around.
First, I must deal with changing my personal habits. I need to create lesson plans in advance so I can work with my advisor and learn what will work and what will not before the actual lesson. Within lesson design I need help distinguishing between what does and what does not “teach” a certain skill or language point. If this sounds too theoretical it is because that’s the way this issue presents itself in my mind, and why I’m insecure about it. Once I graduate from this course I will be on my own and hopefully by then I’ll be prepared and able to make effective lessons by myself.
Secondly, while I can cope with the idea that I must do a personal grammar lesson for myself before I can feel comfortable teaching any language point, I still need to work on my self-awareness when it comes to language. As articulate as I can be, I grew up in an environment of slang and poor grammar and I sense now how that can confuse me when teaching. It is a minor adjustment, but an important one.
Thirdly, I sincerely have to work on my confidence. I know this doesn’t have much to do with skills, language systems, or vocabulary but all that is more natural to me than believing in myself while in the midst of failure. In the future, things will go wrong, and I don’t want to lose a job or who-knows-what just because I couldn’t pull myself back up. I absolutely believe I have the aptitude, the potential, to be a really amazing teacher – I just need some patience, mostly with myself.
More than anything else, I sense that coming to Brno and attending this course has been a changing point in my life. I believe I will look back on my experience here and recognize the moment when I finally grew up. I realize this paper might be more for technical aspects of teaching, but I would be lying if I didn’t give time to these more abstract and personal matters – in my life, and in my teaching future, I feel they are the most important lessons I will have learned. That and thinking time – always give plenty of thinking time.
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